Dissociation, a form of hypnotic trance, helps children survive the abuse… The abuse takes on a dream-like, surreal quality and deadened feelings and altered perceptions add to the strangeness. The whole scene does not fit into the 'real world.' It is simple to forget, easy to believe nothing happened.

— Renee Fredrickson

Dissociation gets you through a brutal experience, letting your basic survival skills operate unimpeded… Your ability to survive is enhanced as the ability to feel is diminished… All feeling are blocked; you ‘go away.’ You are disconnected from the act, the perpetrator & yourself… Viewing the scene from up above or some other out-of-body perspective is common among sexual abuse survivors.

— Renee Fredrickson

Dissociative Disorders have a high rate of responsiveness to therapy and that with proper treatment, their prognosis is quite good.

— Marlene Steinberg

Do not look for healing at the feet of those who broke you

— Rupi Kaur

Don't judge yourself by what others did to you.

— C. Kennedy

Don't try to be brave all at once. Take it in steps.

— C. Kennedy

Don't you love your mother, dear?"" I guess so. A hard, sharp, thorny kind of love that might be pity more than anything else.

— Dean Koontz

Even if our survival skills have become impediments we would like to let go of because they have ceased to serve us, we can still love ourselves with them. In appreciation of our survival, we can be awed at how our resources brought us through, even when these resources were things like indifference, a wall of rage, a cold heart… We learn to embrace ourselves as humans with faults and problems.

— Maureen Brady

Everyone heals in their own time and in their own way. The path isn't always a straight line, and you don't need to go it alone.

— Zeke Thomas

Everything you need to heal is inside yourself. You only need support and encouragement to listen to yourself—to your thoughts, feelings, imagery, and inner spiritual urgings. A book, like a therapist or group, can only guide you, helping you to say out loud what you dared not say even to yourself.

— Renee Fredrickson